Srisailam gets Krishna, Tungabhadra waters

Hyderabad: Srisailam dam, the lifeline of Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh, continues to get good inflow from the Krishna and Tungabhadra rivers. In fact, the officials have been told that the inflow in the upstream areas will be “on the rise” for at least a week.

On Saturday evening, 30 flood-gates of the Tungabhadra dam at Hospet in Karnataka were opened to release over one lakh cusecs of water into the downstream main river. Similarly, flood-gates of Almatti and Narayanapur in Karnataka and Jurala in Telangana have been opened to release waters in the range of 1.5 lakh cusecs.

“By Sunday evening or Monday morning, we are expecting total inflow of around three lakh cusecs from both the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers. We have been told by Karnataka engineers about the inflow ‘rising’ further for at least a week,” said Krishna Rao, Srisailam chief engineer.

At present, the water level at the Srisailam dam has touched 845 ft, against full reservoir level of 885 ft. The capacity has reached 72 TMC ft against total capacity of 215 TMC ft.

“If similar inflows continue for a week, we may have to open the Srisailam flood-gates to release water into the downstream Krishna river,” Mr Rao said adding, “There still remains a flood cushion of about 130 TMC ft at Srisailam, and if the dam reaches its full capacity, water will be released to Nagarjunasagar dam where a flood cushion of about 180 TMC ft remains."

Meanwhile, authorities have issued flood warnings in both Bellary and Kurnool districts that lie along the Tungabhadra.